Treemendous! I was wondering when you wood branch out and leaf the mechanical end of model makin for the less poplar scenery side. Oak-A, oak-A, stop barkin, I'll quit here before you guys get board with these puns. Glad to see your creative juices are still phloem. By the way, what kind of glue did you use, elm-ers? Alright, alright! Nice stuff, looks cherry! Russell

Alright then, I had hoped some would like it enough to wonder how it was made as I did take those photos.

For materials you need:

Balsa for the trunk base.
Manila rope for the branches.
1/16" diameter Brass or piano wire for pins to attach some of the branches.
CA glue. Thin is used most,but it is good to also have a medium viscosity glue on hand as well.
Accelerator ( Zip Kicker )
Spackle compound You want to be sure to use the plaster Spackle compound.....There is a vinyl product they offer that does not take paint well or stains at all. So be sure not to use that.

Paints or stains
A photo of what you would like it to look something like when finished will help.
And most of all, the desire to have some fun.

For the base/trunk, you need a piece of balsa the size of which you need to determine on your own, based on the size tree you are going to do.

I wanted this one fairly large, as it is in O scale, and I wanted it to be taller than the structures it would share the display with.

This one I cut from a 3/4" square dowel, and I used an O scale figure standing next to it to determine how long I needed it.

The length was determined by the height where I wanted the largest of the branches to begin branching out.

Once the length was determined the piece was cut and then the 4 corners were shaved off making an Octagon
shape, then those corners were shaved, and so on, until the piece was fairly round.

If you can get the balsa in the round shape to begin with all the better for you, I just happen to have had a few pieces of this
handy and its really easy to round out with a utility knife anyway.

Then to make it easier to work with, the piece is mounted to a larger base board.

Now that we have the trunk on a base we can work with the Manila rope.

(If you are working in HO scale, you can omit the balsa trunk, and just start with this step, inserting the pin into a base.)

I determined how tall I wanted the tree to be and cut pieces of the rope a few inches longer then that.

Better to have them too long and able to cut them rather than too short and just wish you could.

Pins are then cut, glued and inserted into one end of the rope.

After a few moments the glue will bond and you can saturate the end with more glue and give it a spritz with accelerator.

Then a hole is drilled into the base where the branch will be attached and the pin is glued and inserted.

This is then repeated for all the other large branches you want to have come out from the main trunk. ( In this case I just used 2. )

Now, determine where you want this branch to have a branch, and holding the bottom portion of the rope in the basic shape you want the branch to have to that point, saturate the branch with the thin CA, and then spritz it with accelerator.

Once the glue kicks, you can unwind a strand of the rope down to where the glue has set.

Determine where you want that branch to start and then add more glue to hold it there.

Now, you just repeat this process up the branch, shaping and gluing as you go, until you have the branch as tall as you want and you can then trim off the excess.

When that is done, you can now go back the the secondary branches and repeat this unwinding the rope, branching it, and proceeding out to where you want it to end and trimming them off there.

It's a good idea to step back now and then and check the overall shape.

Here I have one side done.

Here the other is finished.

Changes can still be made, but now you have your basic armature complete.

Once you have made any changes, it's a good idea to go back and add more CA on the branch joints building them up for strength.

More to come.....

____________________My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.